Mercy Frees Roman Polanski. Justice Frees Monsignor Lynn

Film director Roman Polanski and Philadelphia Monsignor William Lynn came before the bar of American justice with similar results, but for very different reasons.

“Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has fallen in the public square, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey … There is no justice.” (Isaiah 59:14-15)

The monk, John Cassian was the first to list the Seven Deadly Sins and to popularize the term in Christian thought. His list was composed in the early Fifth Century, but was later nuanced by Saint Gregory the Great and Saint Thomas Aquinas. With just subtle variations, the list has always included pride, greed, lust, envy, anger, gluttony, and sloth. Were John Cassian to compose that list today, I think hypocrisy would make the cut, at least as a not-so-honorable mention.

To expose hypocrisy is another “Prelude to the Year of Mercy,” and for that the gloves have to come off for awhile. I’m sorry for that, but in a world of media and judicial hypocrisy, some recent events demand a little more truth than the mainstream news media has provided, and from that I cannot flee. Not after my “Hits and Misses of 2015.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer could not flee from the tyranny of propaganda that cost the lives of so many, and neither can I. So forgive me, please, in this Year of Mercy, for calling out double standards that cheat justice, and cheat us all out of its promised equality.

If you’ve read the entertainment section of major newspapers then you have likely come across a few film reviews droning on about the “Oscar-worthy” performances of actors who portrayed The Boston Globe “Spotlight” Team in the greatly hyped film, “Spotlight.” Media critic David Pierre told a less glorified version of the story behind the film in his landmark book, Sins of the Press. I, too, explored the story behind that story, and behind David Pierre’s book, in “The Pulitzer Lies: David and the Truth About Goliath.”

The highly touted movie, “Spotlight” was released in theaters on November 6, 2015, two days after publication of my post, “Cardinal Bernard Law on the Frontier of Civil Rights.” Talk about a collision of themes! In its awards for the year’s best films, however, the National Board of Review passed it over completely in every category of film honors, selecting as “Best Film” the movie “Mad Max: Fury Road.”

Don’t get me wrong. I like and respect the fine actors who lent their talents (“sold” is a more accurate term) for the production of “Spotlight.” I admit that I liked one of them, actor Mark Ruffalo, far better as “The Hulk” in the highly energized film, “The Avengers.” In “Spotlight,” he didn’t turn green with rage while portraying Boston Globe reporter Michael Rezendes, but a promo for the film included a scene of somewhat lesser rage. In character as a Globe reporter, Ruffalo shouted at the camera, and at Boston Globe editors, “People have to know that no one can get away with this!” It made for a great sound bite. The “this” he was enraged about was, of course, child sexual abuse and its cover up. Who could disagree? But the Hollywood version aside, there is ample evidence that the terror of sexual abuse and the plight of victims was not at all Boston Globe’s target. That tragedy was only a smoke screen for the real target: the Catholic Church and priesthood. Some people did get away with “this,” and the Globe remained silent.

A SPOTLIGHT ON HYPOCRISY

It was easy to miss if you didn’t wade into the lower tide pool’s of the news, but an astonishing side story occurred just days before the release of “Spotlight.” Famed film director Roman Polanski – who lived and worked in plain sight while on the lam from U.S. justice for decades – was arrested in Krakow, Poland at the end of October on a fugitive from justice charge that has been in place in the U.S. for nearly forty years.

What happened after his arrest, however, was fascinating. Polanski had been in Krakow, Poland to shoot a new movie when the United States issued a warrant for his arrest and demanded that he be extradited. Polanski appeared before Krakow court Judge Dariusz Mazur who ruled on October 31, 2015 that he will not send Polanski into the hands of U.S. justice. Judge Mazur ruled that Polanski “would be denied a fair trial,” and added, “conditions in U.S. prisons are too harsh for an 82-year-old.”

That last point was amazing. I wonder how many U.S. judges are even aware, or care one iota, that U.S. prisons are no place for old men. Just last year, a New Hampshire judge sentenced an 83-year-old man to ten to twenty years in this prison. The poor man, who had some dementia, ended up in an overflow bunk outside my cell where he cried his eyes out his first night here because he did not know what had become of his beloved dog. A guard bellowed at him and humiliated him one day when he was slow to respond to a question he did not understand. I was reprimanded one day because the old man was freezing. So I broke the rules by giving him a warm sweatshirt. Old men in prison are always cold.

And also last year, my friend, 80-year-old Martin, a U.S. Marine combat veteran, sat for months outside my cell in his wheelchair. He lost his leg several years ago when it was crushed in an accident. Now locked in a prison dormitory out in the open with zero privacy, Martin is still sitting in that chair in prison three years after being paroled because he cannot find a place to go that will accommodate his disability.

I spent time with Martin to be certain that what little he had wasn’t exploited by others. Old men and their meager belongings are easy targets in prison. Martin never complained, but he cried one night when he told me of the death of his wife of 56 years, of how he learned that sad news from a callous prison “counselor” who ridiculed him saying, “Oh just suck it up, old man!” because he couldn’t hold back his tears.

So how is it that a Krakow, Poland judge has come to know something about old men in U.S. prisons that seems to escape judges within a stone’s throw of this prison? What is the source of their apparent determination to remain clueless about what happens to old men they consign to prison while a judge in Poland could not fathom such a thing?

After Judge Mazur’s enlightened refusal to put 82-year-old Roman Polanski into the hands of U.S. justice, he ordered that a Polish prosecutor will have an opportunity to appeal that ruling. In another buried news blurb that appeared at the end of November, the Krakow prosecutor who reviewed the case also declined to challenge it, and sharply criticized the American justice system for stubbornly seeking Polanski’s extradition.

He stated – now this is the prosecutor, mind you – that he agrees with the Krakow judge’s decision in this case and added his own opinion that that “U.S. judges [are] too easily influenced by the public and news media to be considered impartial.” The prosecutor also cited the “unacceptable conditions in U.S. prisons,” and noted with disdain that “U.S judges consulted with prosecutors without Mr. Polanski’s attorney being present.”

HE SHOULD THANK THE LORD HE ISN’T “FATHER POLANSKI”

I am certainly not advocating that this 82-year-old man be dumped into a U.S. prison, but the history of this story gives it more perspective. In a Los Angeles courtroom in 1977, Roman Polanski pled guilty to charges of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl. Accepting a plea bargain, he served 42 days in jail – that’s days, not years. Fearing that a judge in the case wasn’t accepting the State’s deal, knowing that he could face years in prison, Polanski fled the United States. He went on in Europe to direct several subsequent films, winning the 2002 Best Director Oscar for one: “The Pianist.”

Yes, his crime was a long time ago, but for perspective it was only two to six years before the charges against me which were claimed to have occurred sometime between 1979 and 1983. I will be 108 years old upon release when I could have left prison 20 years ago had I actually been guilty and could have taken the deal. So I see the Polanski case through a different set of eyes than most. Still, I think the Krakow judge and prosecutor are right about American justice and American prisons, a failed system that American politicians lack the courage and the will to address.

Having dual citizenship in France and Poland, Roman Polanski lived and worked openly in Paris for the ensuing decades after he fled. He had no fear of arrest as a fugitive from justice because the French see U.S. prisons and the justice system here as barbaric. France withdrew its extradition agreement with the U.S. decades ago.

THE WHOOPI CUSHION

Two years ago on These Stone Walls, I wrote “The Summer of Roman Polanski, Fr Dominic Menna, and Bishop Eddie Long.” It detailed glaring double standards with which the courts and the news media handled three simultaneous cases of accused sexual misconduct. That post described how, in 2009, Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland when he traveled there to receive the film industry’s highest accolade, the Zurich Film Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Some in Hollywood were outraged at the arrest of Polanski. “The View” panelist Whoopi Goldberg – whom I quoted in a post with the unfortunate title, “The Whoopi Cushion”- excused his crime with the now famous sound bite, “It wasn’t rape rape.” More recently, she has become a similar apologist for Bill Cosby. In 2002, Whoopi joined others at “The View” in vile condemnation of accused Catholic priests.

One media pundit excused this obvious duplicity stating – make sure you’re sitting down – that cases against priests should be treated differently from those of celebrities “because the entertainment industry doesn’t have the influence on young people that the Catholic Church has.” HUH? What planet has that pundit been living on?

In the end, after months under house arrest in the horrors of a privately owned Swiss chalet, the Swiss government declined extradition of Roman Polanski in 2010 citing some of the same opinions more recently cited by Polish judges and prosecutors. In response, The Boston Globe devoted a full two inches for an editorial at the very bottom of its Editorial Page on July 14, 2010, suggesting in wimpy prose that freeing Polanski “sends a disturbing message about how money and celebrity can supersede morality and justice.” Where would we be without The Boston Globe’s moral compass?

And so much for Globe Reporter Michael Rezendes and his angry sound bite, “People have to know that no one can get away with this!” In response to it all, the Los Angeles D.A.’s Office stated that these decisions in Europe “have no bearing on its campaign to bring the director back to the U.S.” Followed, just off camera, by a wink and a nod.

IT’S NOT ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA

More perspective: I wrote of the travesty of justice that befell one priest in “Trophy Justice: The Philadelphia Msgr William Lynn Case.” Weeks ago on December 23, a Pennsylvania appeals court overturned the conviction of Monsignor William Lynn and ordered his release from prison – for the second time. It came as welcome news for those concerned for the duplicity of justice in the arena of due process for priests.

Msgr. Lynn was released with his conviction overturned exactly one year ago, but Philadelphia prosecutor Seth Williams showed his contempt for the priest, for the court, for justice itself by publicly airing his disgust. He vowed to appeal. Monsignor Lynn and I have both learned the hard way that prosecutors, using your tax dollars, have an almost unlimited ability to fight off defendants’ appeals or to further appeal judge’s decisions they don’t like.

Just before Easter last year, D.A. Williams succeeded in getting Monsignor Lynn sent back to prison. Well into his 70s, this good priest who committed no real crime has thus far spent several of his senior years in a U.S. prison, but he has never been accused of any form of sexual misconduct. He was accused of violating Pennsylvania’s child protection laws by reassigning a priest who was accused. The Catholic League’s Bill Donohue wrote pointedly about this. So did I, in “A Rolling Stone Gathers No Facts, Just Dirt.” Now, finally, a Pennsylvania appeals court has reversed that decision and freed Monsignor Lynn. Bill Donohue has described the prosecutorial and judicial misconduct that took place here.

So Christmas came to two men, on two continents, both with high profile stories and vast differences in the justice meted out to them. In both cases, much of the news media remained silent, but for very different reasons.

A final bit of perspective: A whole lot of TSW readers were fuming with anger when TSW was overlooked for a recent web award after having received ninety percent of readers’ votes. For reasons of their own, the award’s judges opted instead for a site that received three percent. I’m not reopening to that silly fiasco, but just imagine for a moment what the media outcry would have been like had it been an accused Catholic priest summoned to Zurich for an honor like the Lifetime Achievement Award. KABOOM!!!

And imagine what the media response would be if it were the Vatican – and not the nations of France, Switzerland, and Poland – refusing extradition in the case of an accused and convicted man. The media explosions would be catastrophic!

If you haven’t come across the facts of this story anywhere else, consider this before you buy into the laurel wreathes of media heroism now being laid at the feet of The Boston Globe and its propaganda film, “Spotlight.” Consider not just what they have claimed to uncover and publish, but also what they have kept from you and still keep from you. It is precisely there that you will find the devil in the details.

About Fr. Gordon J. MacRae

The late Cardinal Avery Dulles and The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus encouraged Father MacRae to write. Cardinal Dulles wrote in 2005: “Someday your story and that of your fellow sufferers will come to light and will be instrumental in a reform. Your writing, which is clear, eloquent, and spiritually sound will be a monument to your trials.” READ MORE

Comments

I happened to watch the Golden Globe awards last night solely because “Spotlight” was strongly predicted to be the winner in three major categories: Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Drama of 2015. It is very telling that it lost on all three even after some of the major media predicted it as the winner. It is clear to me that this film and this story are seen very differently on an international scale than they are in the U.S. At the same time, I have been fascinated by a story out of Boston. There has been a drama at The Boston Globe over the last few weeks. Managers have had to ask rank and file reporters and editorial writers to help deliver their paper because a new delivery service to save money has been failing to deliver to ten percent of their subscriber base. Now many are canceling their subscriptions as a result. It seems to me this is a clear case of “what goes around comes around.”

Thank you for a(nother) riveting and heartbreaking post. Thank God you have such deep faith and perspective on the mess life has handed you and on the messes other people find themselves in and sometimes manage to get out of, otherwise, insanity would be the only option.

You have been much on my mind and in my prayers, especially over Christmas, and I wanted to tell you that a few months ago I discovered in my messy spare room/office here a beautiful Easter Mass card that I had ordered for you in 2014 from the Marian Fathers but had not recognized when it arrived. I didn’t know how to explain this to you or whether you would even be allowed to receive it so I haven’t tried to send it on to you, but just wanted you to know that they prayed for you and offered Masses for you then. It helps that you virtually live in the ‘eternal now’ already and will probably understand this. 🙂

Thank you, Father Gordon, for this sharp reflection on such delicate material that we hear so little about in the general media. It confirms how true 1 John: 19 is : “ . . . . while the whole world is under the evil one”. You uncover double standards in this article, however disheartening, disturbing and hard-to-believe may it all be to some. The Apostle John, who warns us “ . . . . be on your guard against idols” in verse 21 of the same chapter in the same Epistle, raises our hope in verse 11 “ . . . . God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son”. Something the world rulers and judges cannot give or take from us. I don’t trust Governments anymore. I used to do it years ago when I would think there were good and bad Governments.

Of the other countries you mention in your article, France , which has suffered terrorist attacks in recent times, is a country where religious processions were forbidden when I visited there a few years ago. Poland seems to have turned materialistic and, to a large extent, become unappreciative of the great sacrifices and struggles their ancestors went through in decades not so distant. Evil is seen all over, no matter where we are, if we care to look deeper than what is usually advertised. Plenty of what you, Father Gordon, reflect in your article has to do, in one way or another, with “the evil one”, that is, Satan and collaborators.

Quite a few years ago Christians, in particular Catholics, used to make public prayers and processions when confronted with public calamities. Now prayers, crucifixes and other Christian symbols are banned by self-proclaimed “clever” politicians and persons in authority. Believers are left all too often with decaffeinated Masses which at times resemble more talk shows rather than the mysterious but true reliving of Calvary’s Sacrifice in a bloodless form. Also, the Prologue of St. John’s Gospel (John 1:1-18), where we have the essence of the Incarnation and what was to happen afterwards, is no longer proclaimed at the end of every Mass. Neither are prayers said, as a rule, to Our Lady and St. Michael
the Archangel after the Holy Sacrifice. Is this the way to go to counter so much evil in the world?

Let us all pray unceasingly to the One Who can change hearts, the only One Who can save us from this mess.

Dear Father Gordon:
I totally agree with you. There is no justice in an evil ruled world, anymore than there was in Jesus’ day. God for give them and all of us. It is so difficult for me to see you and my dear friend suffer so much for NO reason. I suffer for you both. And know my heart and prayers are always with you. You never know what God has in Mind! Please lean on Him, as His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. You have a whole lot of people praying for you, including me and my family. Prayer is very powerful and your and my friend’s resurrection is coming!!! God bless and protect you always,
Anne Marie

How I ache for you. I sit here reading this blog wondering what God could possibly be up to. I am so very sorry for the agony you suffer via the world’s hands. It is, for sure, a long and hard Calvary. You are always in my (dare I say, all of our) prayers. You’ve managed to capture so many hearts, and, describing, simply by your situation and your honesty, how the persecutions that our Divine Lord reveals to His kids, is an actuality, not just a story.

Thank you, again, for your total honesty in sharing with us your suffering and that of so many others of the Lord’s anointed. Often, you break our hearts with your blogs, but sometimes, I believe, Jesus cannot not enter unless there is a crack in which to enter.

ALWAYS in my heart and prayers,

Your friend,
Helen

LORD JESUS, WE ARE WAITING…….

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” (Matthew 7:7)

“Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 18:19)

“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13)

“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:13-14)

“And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.” (John 16:23)

“For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.” (Romans 10:12)

“For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” (Ephesians 2:18)

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. . (Hebrews 10:19)

“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” (1 John 5:14-15)

There used to be a joke for gullible people …that gullible wasn’t a word in the dictionary anymore. Depending on how long it took you to get that your level of gullibility could be measured.

Well, hypocrisy is still in the dictionary, but those who indulge in it the most seem absolutely incapable of discerning it within themselves.

We are soooo living in an age where good is denounced as evil and evil is hailed as wonderful. I have no inclination to second guess when God is pulling the plug on the whole earthly enterprise, but I have a lot more empathy with those periods in history that we read about, where it seemed inconceivable that the people did not revolt against corruption and tyranny.

Brats and braggarts are our rulers
They know not what they do not know
Though I pray they be forgiven and see the light
I pray God soon intervene to help us here below.

FAther Gordon, I second the gratitude for this column that seeks to inform on so many topics and by doing so exposes the infinite issues that our Catholic faith addresses and enriches.
God bless you, Father Gordon.

Father Gordon,
I have sat in front of my computer for ten
minutes trying to put my thoughts into words. (impossible) All I can say is I have certainly learned a lot since I have begun reading These Stone Walls. I used to think people in jail and prison were the ‘bad guys’. I thought our system worked. I was so wrong. Prayers for you and everybody in prison.

Hello Father Gordon.
I’m so glad that you cannot read tweets or you’d see that actor Mark Ruffalo’s talents do not, alas, extend to his reason. He has great glee demonizing the church.

Of course I pray for him.

Sincerely.

Else I would be guilty of hypocrisy myself (though I cannot claim to be free of it in all areas).

With more extensive than ever child porn, child slavery and teacher on student molestation reported, but not prosecuted, it takes little sleuthing to see that as always it’s the latest era of prosecuting the Catholics that has repeated down through the centuries.

I have good news though and this extends to a here unrelated topic:

Missionaries have reported considerable conversion to Catholicism in countries with Islamic oppression and terrorism. Despite the real risk to their lives. Instead of resigning to terrorism and despair they are choosing courage and hope. Terrorists and the corrupt cannot comprehend this element of humanity that is supernatural.

Methinks the demon below with the horn and pitchfork must be beside himself with rage at this development and has thus infected those who follow him, consciously and unconsciously, with that same rage.
God bless you and may he give you joy and please bring miracles
Jeannie

Yesterday, I made some comments on an article read on-line. When I pushed the post button, I was told that I had been banned from posting on that website. Only then did I notice it was an article on National “catholic” Reporter. Have no idea what I had posted in the past that caused me to be banned, but I should feel honored.

Just now, I went to the Fishwrap, something I NEVER do, to see if I could figure out what the article was I read yesterday. No success, but I did see this article by a Father Peter Daly with his comments on Spotlight. Thought you might be interested in this small section of it, Father Gordon,:

“At one point in the movie the reporters interview Richard Sipe, the former priest and psychologist, over the telephone. He has spent 40 years treating and studying the sexual behavior of priests. Sipe’s character points out what I have long felt to be true: the root problem is celibacy. It creates a culture of secrecy and mendacity. People lie to themselves and the church about their abstinence from sex. They become accustomed to not telling the truth. Bishops are caught up in that clerical culture of mendacity. ”

Why is it that they ALWAYS interview a FORMER priest? And what kind of person is it who spends 40 YEARS of his life studying the sexual behavior of priests? Sounds like he must be related to Kinsey. Doesn’t he have anything better to do? What in the world did they teach him in seminary about celibacy that he is so turned off by that sacrifice?

So celibacy is the problem. Right. That explains sexual abuse. Well, only if one closes his eyes to the rampant sexual abuse everywhere else except in the Catholic Church. How can people be so blind to the facts?

The real cause of all this angst is that so many non-Catholics cannot imagine a life without sex! The latter life seems to be the cardinal sin of sins in the world. There seems to be a guilt complex about sex – if you have it, you’re really smutty, if you don’t you’re abnormal. The root cause is that satan hates God who is Love, and satan will do everything to vilify love in whatever shape or form it takes – whichever side you are coming from. Not even the products of love in the womb are exempt from his murderous rage. Priests, as such, are a particular focus of his venom – quite apart from the other God focused work that priests perform.

So, those that are so enraged against priests, should carefully and thoughtfully examine themselves to find out which side they are really on.

But God will repay! And His sentence cannot be challenged.

So, we continue to pray continuously for you and all priests, Fr Gordon. ‘Fear not!’ and ‘Courage!’ as the Lord so often encourages us.

The vast majority of baptised Catholics have apostatised following the example of the clerics. They reject all objective moral truth based on the moral rational nature of man, and detest purity, especially the sacrificial sign of celibacy.

As for Polanski, has he repented of his grave mortal sin, the matter of his prosecution/plea? Mercy does not apply to those who are unrepentant in respect of their wrongdoing. However, if it is probable one would not get a fair trial or sentence, it would not be in the interests of justice to extradite one to such a jurisdiction.